Officials will require all new city government buildings and major renovations to be more energy-efficient and self-sustaining.

Under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold standard, Aurora will be in rare company in Colorado; Fort Collins and Boulder also have put rules in place.

“It’s not only about saving energy, but also saving money in our budget,” said City Councilman Brad Pierce, who led the effort.

In the program, each new project will be rated by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council in several categories. Those include sustainable sites (meaning proximity to public transportation, light pollution and erosion control); energy and atmosphere; water efficiency; materials and resources; indoor environmental quality; and innovation and the design process.

All aspects of the building — such as design, placement, construction, lighting, heating and cooling — are considered.

“The whole system is holistic,” said Jim Schrack, Aurora’s environmental program supervisor.

Schrack said the costs of building green are slightly higher than normal, but the savings the city will reap are far greater than any upfront costs.

The city already has made an effort to be energy-efficient. For example, some lights at the Aurora Municipal Center turn on when you enter a room and shut off when you leave.

More-efficient lighting is being installed, with Xcel Energy helping pay some of the costs.

And when the municipal center was built several years ago, large windows were used to take advantage of as much natural light and heating from the sun as possible.

“We were already doing a lot, but things that were unsung; but this is an accomplishment for the city,” Schrack said. “It’s a demonstration of our commitment.”

Up first for the new building standards: the construction of Prairie Waters, an $800 million wastewater purification project that broke ground this year and will provide up to 3.3 billion gallons of water starting in 2010.

Carlos Illescas had been with The Denver Post since 1997 before leaving in June 2016. He had worked as a reporter covering the suburbs and was a weekend editor. He previously worked for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Aspen Daily News and graduated from Colorado State University in 1991.

Florida’s state social services agency investigated Nikolas Cruz’s home life more than a year before police say he killed 17 people at his former high school, closing the inquiry after determining that his “final level of risk is low,” despite learning that the teenager had behavioral struggles and was planning to buy a gun, according to an investigative report.